by Joan Jonker
Molly looked to where Nellie had her arms around Tommy’s waist. ‘Will yer put Tommy down, sunshine, and let the rest of the family have a turn?’
‘Put him down did yer say, girl?’ Nellie’s eyes were on a level with the buttons on Tommy’s uniform. ‘Have yer seen the ruddy size of him? I’ve got a kink in me neck looking up at him! I can’t remember him being this big when I used to change his nappies.’
Steve was laughing as he bent to pick up his haversack. His mam was still the same old mam, she hadn’t changed at all, thank God. Then as he straightened up, his eyes met Jill’s and a smile full of love and longing lit up his face. But before he could move, his father was in front of him. George put his hands on his son’s shoulders and gazed into his face before pulling him towards him and embracing him in a bearlike hug. ‘Welcome home, son!’
Then Lily came to stand beside them and stood on tiptoe to kiss her brother’s cheek. ‘It’s good to see yer, our Steve. The house hasn’t been the same without you and our Paul.’
‘I haven’t been the same without our house! I’ll never go away again, not even as far as New Brighton.’
‘There’s a certain pretty girl been waiting patiently,’ George whispered in his son’s ear. ‘Don’t make her wait any longer.’
Steve didn’t need telling twice. The haversack was flung on the floor and as he passed Bridie and Bob, he asked, ‘I hope yer don’t mind if I say hello to me girlfriend first? She looks more beautiful than ever and I haven’t held her in me arms for two years.’
‘We’ve got all the time in the world, me darlin’, so we have,’ Bridie said. ‘And wouldn’t any man with red blood in his veins be wanting to hold such a beauty?’
Bob and Rosie were watching Tommy being kissed, hugged and slapped on the back by Jack, Doreen and Ruthie. Bob had tears in his eyes for the grandson he idolised, while Rosie was waiting with mounting impatience to get near the boy she adored.
Tommy caught Rosie’s eyes and grinned. ‘Hello, Rosie O’Grady.’
‘Sure, yer were a foine figure of a lad when I fell for yer, Tommy Bennett, so yer were. And I’d not be telling lies if I said yer were now the finest figure of a man I’ve seen in the whole of me life.’ When laughter erupted, Rosie’s face lit up. ‘If yerself is not too tired after fighting the war, would yer not be coming over to kiss yer nan and yer granda? After that yer can get down to the serious business of giving yer girlfriend a different kind of kiss than the one yer give yer nan. And if yer’ve forgotten the difference, sure aren’t I just the one to teach yer how it’s done?’
Tommy’s head dropped back and he roared with laughter. At fifteen he’d been terrified of Rosie’s outspoken compliments and avoided her like the plague. At sixteen he was smitten, at seventeen head over heels in love, and when he’d joined the army just before his eighteenth birthday, they became unofficially engaged. It had to be unofficial because Tommy was only earning an apprentice’s wage and couldn’t afford a ring. But Rosie didn’t let a little thing like a ring worry her. She’d got the boy of her dreams and her cup of happiness was overflowing.
Bob put a hand on his wife’s elbow and led her forward. ‘Come on, sweetheart, we’ve waited a long time for this.’
Tommy held his arms out and put one around each of the grandparents he adored. They seemed to have become more frail since he went away, and he was careful not to hold them too close. The lump in his throat was becoming bigger and he knew if he spoke he wouldn’t be able to keep the tears back. He rocked them gently and whispered in a choked voice, ‘I love yer very much.’
Rosie, who watched over Bridie and Bob like a mother hen, was afraid the emotion brought on by seeing their grandson after such a long time, might be too much for them. ‘Now Auntie Bridget and Uncle Bob, will yer not be having a thought for Rosie O’Grady? I’ve been very patient, so I have, but me lips have been puckered for a kiss since me beloved walked through the door.’
Molly, who was shedding a few tears herself, said a silent thank you to Rosie for making light of the situation. If it carried on like that everyone would be crying buckets. ‘Tommy, will yer give the girl a kiss, please?’
‘Mam, I’ve been savouring this moment for eighteen months and I’m weak at the knees in anticipation.’
‘If it’s too weak yer are, Tommy Bennett, then it’s meself that’ll make the long journey across these two paving stones.’ With a twinkle in her deep blue eyes, Rosie walked into arms that eagerly awaited her. But before their lips met, and to the amusement of everyone, she said, ‘I’ll be expecting an extra two kisses every night, so I will, until yer’ve made up what I’ve missed for the last eighteen months.’
Nellie sidled up to her friend. ‘Ay, girl, they haven’t even noticed the flipping banners after us going to all that trouble.’
‘They haven’t had a chance, sunshine, they’ve had people hanging around their necks since they arrived. I don’t think they’ve even seen daylight, yet.’
‘Why can’t we tell them to look at them now?’
‘Holy suffering ducks, Nellie, ye’re worse than a child! They’re both busy right now – look!’ Molly pointed to where Steve was talking to his dad and Lily, his arm tightly around Jill’s slim waist. And Tommy couldn’t hold Rosie any closer as they engaged in animated conversation with Bridie and Bob. ‘Just give them a chance.’
But Nellie wasn’t happy with that. ‘They’re Welcome Home signs, Molly Bennett, and I don’t see any point in welcoming them home when they’ve been home and done all their kissing and talking! That’s doing things arse about, that is.’
Molly gave a pretend sigh of exasperation. ‘See these white hairs in me head? Well, it was you what put them there.’
The families had stopped talking now and were listening with grins on their faces. Particularly Steve and Tommy. Oh, how they’d missed these hilarious exchanges between their mothers. And nobody had seen doors on both sides of the street open as neighbours came to join in welcoming home two very popular lads.
‘Don’t yer be blaming me for turning yer hair white, Molly Bennett.’ Nellie squared her shoulders and hitched her bosom. ‘Yer worry too much, that’s what done it. Yer dropped a crumb on the floor one day, and before me very eyes, two hairs on yer head turned white.’
Molly’s shoulders began to shake. ‘Yer have a very convenient memory, sunshine. Yer only remember what suits yer. So I’ll remind yer that the day I dropped the crumb, it was because you’d spilt a full cup of tea all over me good chenille tablecloth.’
‘Don’t be changing the subject, girl, and making excuses. Are yer denying that yer dropped that crumb?’
Molly lifted her hands in surrender. Glancing around the smiling faces, she said, ‘Yer’ll never believe what started all this off. It’s those blinking banners she’s on about. She’s doing her nut because two certain people haven’t noticed them.’
‘I noticed them, Mam,’ Tommy said. ‘I’ve just been telling Rosie and me nan and granda how made up I am. They look great and I’m dead chuffed.’
‘They were the first thing I saw,’ Steve said. ‘I got a lump in me throat when I saw them. Another thing I’ve seen is Miss Clegg. She’s got her curtain drawn back and is waving to us.’
‘She’s been back and forward to the window for the last couple of hours.’ Mary Watson had joined the crowd with her daughter, Bella. ‘She was determined not to miss this homecoming for the world.’
Molly stuck her tongue out at Nellie. ‘Are yer satisfied now, sunshine?’
The crowd had swelled to about thirty, and Tommy and Steve looked very happy to be surrounded by their loved ones and neighbours they’d known all their lives. Nellie was well satisfied, thinking it was no more than the boys deserved. ‘Yes, everything’s under control now, girl, so why don’t yer go in and put the kettle on. The lads must be dying for a bite to eat and a drink.’
‘Sod off, Nellie McDonough! I’m not slaving away in the kitchen while you’re out here playing queen of
the castle. If yer want a drink, then yer can ruddywell help me make it.’
But the drink was to wait for a while because Mrs Robinson, from three doors down, started to sing ‘Roll Out the Barrel’, and within seconds the street was ringing with happy voices. The Bennetts and McDonoughs were well liked in the street and the neighbours wanted them to know they shared their joy at having their sons home. Molly and Nellie were delighted, it couldn’t have turned out better if they’d planned it. So they were in high spirits when Mrs Robinson began to belt out ‘Tipperary’, and they looked at each other and grinned.
‘Come on, girl, let’s shake a leg.’
‘You lead, sunshine, and I’ll follow.’
Several of the women joined in, and those who were too old to be kicking their legs in the air, supplied the singing. And their antics gave Steve and Tommy a chance to get their emotions in check. Surrounded by their families and with their girlfriends in their arms, it was all happening so quickly they were finding it hard to take it in. The Welcome Home banners had brought a lump to their throats. Then the neighbours turning out in force, clearly happy to see them – well, it really pulled on the heartstrings. They hadn’t expected such a rousing reception and were overwhelmed. It would have been easy to give way to tears, but nineteen- and twenty-two-year-old men didn’t cry. Especially when they were wearing a soldier’s uniform.
‘Me mam’s in good form, Dad,’ Doreen said, as her father and George clapped in time to the jigs. ‘I wonder how long she can keep that up? She’s got more energy than me.’
‘It won’t be long now,’ Jack laughed. ‘Nellie’s sweating cobs and yer mam’s beginning to flag.’
‘I’m just nipping down the yard, I won’t be long.’ Doreen disappeared into the house, but was out again within seconds. ‘Mam!’ She touched her mother’s arm. ‘D’yer know yer told us yer had to get down on yer knees and beg the butcher for that pound of stew? Well, yer lowered yer dignity for nothing, ’cos it’s boiled dry and the bottom of the pan is burnt.’
‘Holy suffering ducks! I’d forgotten all about it!’ Molly fled, leaving Nellie floundering without the support of her arm. Steve saw his mother about to keel over and reached her just in time to prevent her falling on her backside.
Nellie screwed up her face. ‘Where the hell’s she gone? I’ll flatten her when I get me hands on her. I nearly ended up on the ground, showing all I’ve got.’
‘Mam, yer were doing that while yer were dancing. Everyone in the street knows yer’ve got yer pink ones on today.’ Steve grinned down at the woman who had given him so much love and happiness since the day he was born. ‘I think I heard Doreen say the dinner was burnt.’
‘Oh, bloody hell!’ Nellie moved fast for her size. She reached the kitchen to see Molly taking a pan down from the shelf. ‘Is it ruined, girl?’
‘Not far from it! It’s dried-up and stuck to the bottom of the pan. I’m just going to see if I can salvage some of it. If not, Tommy’s first meal at home for eighteen months will be a bag of chips from the chippy.’
‘What were yer thinking of to let that happen, girl?’
Molly’s face was a study as she eyed her friend. ‘What was I thinking of? Well, now, let me see. I know it was daft of me, but I was thinking of showing me son how happy I was to see him. I mean, like, it’s been eighteen months, not eighteen ruddy days! I could hardly shake his hand and say, “Hello, son, yer dinner won’t be long”.’ Molly began to spoon the stew from the burnt pan to the clean one. ‘Anyway, shouldn’t yer be worried about yer own dinner? While ye’re standing there watching me, the backside could be burning out of yer own pan.’
‘No, it won’t, girl, I’m not that daft! Yer see, with George and Lily being off, we had our dinner at one o’clock.’
‘Steve didn’t though, did he? Surely yer’ve got something on the go for him? He’s probably starving with hunger.’
Nellie did something she very seldom did, she blushed. ‘Well, it’s like this, yer see, girl. I thought Jill wouldn’t want to let Steve out of her sight, not with him being away for two years. So I thought the least yer could do would be to let him have some dinner with you.’
Molly couldn’t express her feelings with a pan in her hand, so she put it on the stove before facing her friend. With her hands on her hips and her nostrils flared, she said, ‘Nellie McDonough! You are one scheming, cunning, conniving, hard-faced article! I don’t know how yer’ve got the nerve to stand there, with that innocent look on yer face, and say what yer’ve just said! When it comes to cheek, sunshine, you really take the biscuit.’
Nellie’s whole body quivered as she got on her high horse. ‘I don’t know why ye’re taking off like that on me for! I’ve hardly opened me flaming mouth! It’s you what’s been doing all the talking. Instead of you getting a cob on with me, I’d be well within me rights to tell yer off for spoiling me son’s dinner! But have yer heard me complain? No, I haven’t said a dickie-bird! Now let’s be fair about it.’
‘Let’s be fair about it? I’m abso-bloody-lutely flabbergasted!’ Molly feigned indignation while inside her whole being was chuckling. ‘Anyway, I’m surprised yer don’t want yer son to be with you and George on his first night home.’
‘Oh, we do, girl! I’m not letting Steve out of me sight for one minute!’
The chuckling inside of Molly slowed down. She might be able to salvage most of the stew because it wasn’t as bad as she’d first feared. If she added some water and Bisto, it shouldn’t be too bad and there’d be enough for Steve if the helpings weren’t too big. But it certainly wouldn’t stretch to Nellie, George and Lily. ‘I know what ye’re thinking, sunshine, but yer can forget it. I’ll be glad to have Steve for his dinner, but I ain’t feeding the five thousand.’
‘Lily’s going out, so there’s only me and my feller. And we’d be quite happy sitting on yer couch with a bag of chips in our hand. We understand that Steve will want to spend every minute with Jill, but we want to know where he’s been the last two years and everything he’s done and seen. The letters we’ve had told us nothing, thanks to the bloody feller who censored them. And I bet you wouldn’t be very happy if Tommy went round to yer ma’s tonight, to be with Rosie, would yer?’
‘No, I wouldn’t. But Rosie’s taking me ma and da home for their tea, then coming back later. Why can’t you do the same?’
‘Waste of shoe leather. Beside, I want to reserve a good speck for the night.’
Molly gave it up as a bad job and turned back to the stove. If Nellie said she was going to sit on the couch with a bag of chips in her hand, then that’s what Nellie would do. Talking to her would be like talking to the wall. ‘It’s going to be a full house, right enough. What with your three, me ma’s three and my six! And Phil is bound to come over to see the lads, and be with Doreen, of course. How many does that make?’
‘I dunno, girl, I ran out of fingers when I got to ten. But yer were near enough when yer said a houseful.’
The families started to troop back in and Jack came straight through to the kitchen. ‘Was the dinner ruined, love?’
‘The bottom had caught, but it’ll be all right with a bit of doctoring.’ Molly glanced through to the living room to see Tommy smiling down into Rosie’s upturned face, and suddenly the stew didn’t seem important. The boys were home and that’s what really mattered. And she vowed that never again would they go away to war. If another Hitler came along in her lifetime, she would personally see he was hung, drawn and quartered. She would have to take Nellie with her, of course, ’cos she couldn’t do it alone.
‘It was good of the neighbours to come out, wasn’t it?’ Molly asked. ‘They knew yer were coming home today, but we couldn’t tell them what time because we didn’t know ourselves. They must have been watching out.’
‘I never expected a welcome like that, Mam,’ Tommy said. ‘It was a real surprise. I thought me dad and the girls would be at work.’
‘Yeah, me too.’ Steve speared a potato. ‘Neve
r in a million years did I expect that sort of reception. I had a lump in me throat half the time.’
‘Yer should have been here when Ruthie came running in and said yer’d just got off the tram!’ George said, from his seat on the couch. ‘Molly and yer mam were nervous wrecks and I thought we’d be needing a bottle of smelling salts to bring them round. And Jill’s face was as white as a sheet. She couldn’t even get off the chair. Doreen had to drag her out in the end.’
Jack chuckled. ‘Yeah, I thought yer were going to come home to find all the women laid out on the floor. Still, it all turned out well in the end, and the neighbours joining in made yer welcome home a bit more special, something to remember.’
Molly was watching their faces anxiously. She’d been afraid the stew might have a slight taste of burning, but everyone was tucking in with gusto so she laid her fears to rest. ‘I was surprised at Mrs Robinson, it’s not often she lets herself go.’
‘She brought back a few memories for me,’ Steve said, his grin wide, his dimples deep. ‘I was remembering the times she used to chase me and me mates when we were playing footie in the street. “Go and annoy someone else,” she used to shout. Or, “Go and play outside yer own house and see how yer mam likes it”.’
Tommy’s broad shoulders were shaking. ‘I used to be terrified of her. She once wagged her finger at me and said, “If I see yer playing footie outside here again, I’ll put yer over me knee and tan yer backside for yer”. I kept well away from her house after that.’
‘She’d have a job to do that now, son, with the size of yer.’ Molly’s cup of happiness was overflowing now Tommy was back in his chair at the table. Mealtimes hadn’t been the same for the last eighteen months because the empty chair had been a constant reminder of him. Not one night had gone by that she hadn’t wondered where he was and if he was all right. But he was back in the fold now and her heart could be at peace. ‘If yer grow any taller yer won’t be able to get in the door.’
